THE HOUSE OF GOD
By W. J. DALBY, M.A.
PART 1
In
the Old Testament days, under the Law, the Jews had a literal
In
the case of any temple the most important idea associated with it is that of
the presence of God. A
literal temple is, in fact, a place where Deity is supposed to dwell in a
special sense. This conception was
actually realized in the
[* The personal indwelling of the
Holy Spirit in any regenerate soul is conditional upon obedience,
(Acts 5:32: it is shown in both
Testaments, (1 Samuel 16: 14; 18: 12; Judges 16: 20.
cf. Psalm 51: 11, etc)]
The
second thought which occurs to us in connection with a temple is that of sacrifice. The sacrificial system of the Old
Testament centred in the
We
may now add a word about worship in general. From the circumstance that the corporate
religious life of
We
pass to another point. In the literal
A
further train of thought arises here. In
the
Our
last lesson is drawn from the two pillars of the
"To Whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed
of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
scarifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2: 4-5).
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FOOTNOTE
Here
is an important lesson needed to be learned today in biblical typology; strict
compliance to the Lord’s command is expected from every regenerate believer. Only obedient believers have any proper
grounds for hope of entrance into the Millennial Kingdom of Christ.
"There
is a "salvation through judgment"
for the redeemed people of God:-
Ananias
and Sapphira have not been the last at whose death we may say:-
"Great fear came upon the whole church, and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes
both of men and women" (Acts 5: 11, 14). A revival was sweeping through an English
town, and a saloon keeper was doing everything in his power to oppose it. First he sent the men who frequented his
place, the worst characters in the town, but they one after the other got
converted and never returned. At last
driven to desperation he determined to go himself, and he did.
The
evangelist had been asking God for a text, and finally God gave it. "Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die and not live."
"Why, Lord," cried the revivalist, "I can't preach on that text.
I don't know a thing to say about it.
Give me something else." But nothing else would come. And at last came the moment to preach. In despair the evangelist asked the
congregation to sing another hymn, and while it was being sung he besought God
again for a different text. But no other
could he get.
Now
the saloon keeper had planned to let the preacher announce his text, and then
to spring up and wreck the service. The
building was densely packed. White and trembling the evangelist in a solemn voice gave out his
text, "Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die
and not live." And no sooner
had he uttered the last word than the desperado who had found a seat in the
centre of the auditorium sprang to his feet and let out such a volley of oaths
and blasphemy that everyone was shocked beyond expression.
Suddenly
he paused, a moment later a gurgle was heard in his throat. Then came a great
mouthful of blood, and the next moment there was a crash as he fell heavily to
the floor. The man was a corpse. God had judged him on the spot, and had used
drastic means. The papers reported
it. Far and wide the news was spread. Men almost feared to look the evangelist in
the eyes. Conviction settled deeply, and
large numbers were swept into the Kingdom.
"He that being often reproved hardeneth
his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that
without remedy" (Prov.
29: 1)."
There
are many believers today opposing the "word
of the kingdom." (Matt. 13:19).
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PART 2
THE
By
J. EADIE, D.D.
The
places quoted in support of the Temple here (2
Thess. 2: 4) meaning the Church are not wholly analogous; the spiritual
temple is in them said to be built up of individual believers as living stones;
they are affirmed to be a temple, and the appeal is to them in this
character. The phrase is an immediate
and impressive symbol of their purity and consecration and of their being the
dwelling-place of God, "an habitation of God through the Spirit." In those ethical passages, describing spiritual
privilege, blessing, and destiny, the meaning lies on the surface, and is so
clear that it cannot be for a moment mistaken, for the metaphor carries its own
explanation, and believers are asserted to form the temple.
But
the case is somewhat different in a picture like this where, without any
explanation, the profane and daring usurper, as the acme of his antagonism, is
said to take his seat in the
The
person so described is a man - a single man, and not a series or succession of
men, not the personification of evil influences, or the head of any human
organization. This man, made of sin, and
the representative impersonation of it, is the counter-Christ, "he who opposes"; both are individual men, both
come to view, or are "revealed" in
immediate personal manifestation, both are signalized in character, the one by
righteousness, the other by sin. The one
has life and glory as his destiny, but the other ruin and perdition.
The
Man of Sin exalts himself above and against every one called God. He puts himself into a position higher than
that of any God, refuses to worship anything divine, as if he himself possessed
a higher divinity. Whatever bears a
divine name or claims divine worship, he will put beneath himself in a spirit
of overbearing and self-glorifying hostility, and of blasphemous insolence, as
if to himself alone divine homage were due. He that lifts himself above everything divine
in person or homage puts himself in its room as divine. The inference is that this antichrist thrusts
God out of His place, usurps it, and arrogantly and impiously claims the
worship due to Him.
The
aorist describes the act - he sits down, and it is implied - that the sitting
lasts after the act. Into the temple
proper does this proud opposer thrust himself - as if he - were its divine
inhabitant with his throne in the Holy of Holies.
Dean Alford summarizes the passage thus :-
"Though eighteen hundred years later we
stand, with regard to this prophecy, where the apostle stood; the day of the
Lord not present, and not to arrive until the Man of Sin be manifested; the
mystery of iniquity still working, and much advanced in its working; the
restrainer still hindering. Lawlessness working on, so to speak, underground,
under the surface of things, gaining throughout many ages more expansive force,
more accumulated power, but still hidden and un-concentrated." The ‘many antichrists’
(as he points out) are minor eruptions of the subterranean lawlessness which
culminates in the devastating volcano of the Lawless One.
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PART 3
ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES IN THE
By Professor H. GRAETZ
Antiochus
left
[*
If Judas is the False Prophet, Menclaus seems to forecast an ingrained tendency
of things. The apostate Jew aids and
abets the Gentile Anti-God, and persuades and compels to the worship of his
Image. It is significant that Napoleon's
chief helper was Talleyrand, an
apostate bishop. Hell's best tool is a
traitor. - D. M. PANTON.]
Solitude
soon became unbearable to Menelaus, the original instigator of all these
horrors. He was frightened at the mere
echo of his own voice. To free himself
from this painful position he invented a new and infamous plan. Judaism, with
its laws and customs, was to be suspended, and its followers were to be
compelled to adopt the Greek faith. Antiochus, full of hatred and anger
against both the Judaeans and their religion, acceded to Menelaus’ plan, and
had it carried out with his usual tenacity.
The Judaeans were to become Hellenized, and thereby reduced to
obedience, or, if they opposed his will, they were doomed to death. He not only wished to become master of the
Judaean people, but to prove to them the impotence of the God they served so
faithfully. He, who disdained the gods
of his ancestors, considered it a mockery that the Judaeans should still hope
that their God would destroy him, the proud blasphemer, and he determined to
challenge and defeat the God of Israel.
Thereupon,
Antiochus issued a decree, which was sent forth to all the towns of
The
Antiochus
was greatly irritated by the resistance the Jews offered, and he issued command
upon command to enforce his orders with the utmost cruelty upon the disobedient
people. The officials therefore
continued their persecutions with redoubled zeal. They tore and burnt the rolls of the Law
whenever they found them, and killed the few survivors who sought strength and
consolation in their perusal. They
destroyed all houses of worship and education, and if they found poor weak
women, just recovering from their confinements, who, in the absence of their
husbands, circumcised their sons themselves, these
barbarians hanged them with their babes on the walls of the city.
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NOTE.
DESECRATIONS OF THE HOLY OF
HOLIES
The
natural impiety of the human heart has, from to time, sought the desecration of
the Holy of Holies. Thus when Pompey
took Jerusalem:- "No small enormities were
committed about the Temple itself, which in former ages had been inaccessible and
seen by none, for Pompey went into it, and not a few of
those that were with him also, and saw all which it was unlawful for any
other men to see only for the high priests."
Josephus.
(b)
So did Titus, when the temple was taken and burnt. "And now, since
Caesar was no way able to restrain the enthusiastic fury of the soldiers, and
the fire proceeded on more and more he went into the holy place of the
temple with his commander, and saw it, with what was in it:"
Wars vi., iv., 7.
(c)
So, the Roman emperor Caligula gave order to Petronius "to make an invasion into Judaea with a great body of the
troops, and if they would admit of his statue willingly, to erect it in THE
(d)
Similar was the conduct of Ptolemy Philopator, as recorded in the third
of Maccabees. He came to
- ROBERT GOVETT
PART 4
ANTICHRIST IN THE
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Had
we all the facts before us which God has before Him, and had we the mind
to master and collate them which God has, prophecy would be superfluous, since prophecy
is only the supernatural disclosure of what the facts around us make as
inevitable as mathematics; and therefore, as it is, to a mind trained in
prophecy, as the oak is in the acorn, so the drama of the end is visibly
forming in the facts of to-day. Here is
one. "In the magnificent chapel of the Tsar's
Palace in Livadia, in the Crimea," says Mr. Stanley Perkins of
THE HOLY OF HOLIES
There
has been one spot in the world and one only, which is actually ground
consecrated to Deity, where, alone on earth since the creation of the world,
God has been resident. When the Temple
was completed Solomon cried - "Will God in very deed dwell on the earth?"
and the response, of Jehovah was immediate - "When
Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire
came down from heaven, and THE GLORY OF THE LORD" - the
Shekinah Glory that never appears apart from the local presence of Deity -
"FILLED THE
HOUSE" (2 Chron. 7: 1). The Holy of Holies is the only plot of ground
which the Godhead, untabernacled in flesh, has ever taken up prolonged
residence: it was the earthly Palace of the King.
THE SACRILEGE
It
follows therefore that no spot on earth could be more ideally
chosen on which to challenge the Godhead, or on which to substitute a human
deity, in a sacrilege the most amazing, the most, daring, and - if uncrushed -
the most strategically successful conceivable.
This is the exact plan of Hell.
Where no man might enter without death, except the High Priest; where
the High Priest could not enter without death except on one day of the year; where even the Lord Jesus, as the obedient
Israelite, never entered:- "the man of sin, the son of perdition, SITTETH"
- even as Jehovah reposed between the Cherubim - "IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD,
setting himself forth as God" (2 Thess.
2: 4). On the Mercy Seat, beneath
the overshadowing Cherubim, is seated, for the worship of the world, the
Arch-Rebel himself.
THE
Who
exactly rebuilds the Temple - whether it is reconstructed internationally, or
by Zionists, or by the Masons, of the world, or by the Mandatory Power - does not appear to be
revealed, but since the sacrifices could be offered nowhere else, and
Antichrist makes the sacrifices, which had been resumed, to cease (Dan. 9: 27), the Temple must be again in
being for the final drama, and it is the Temple of God. Our Lord regarded Herod’s
[*
See also, possibly, Psa. 74: 7, 8.]
THE IMAGE
Now
the drama begins by the Antichrist getting control of the
[*
A thirty-foot image of Lenin over-shadows the Tomski Stadium in the suburbs of
**
It is a curious and sinister forecast that Caligula
habitually spoke to his Image in
WORSHIP
So
now we reach the final maturity of human sin. "He SITTETH" - that is, in
regular and habitual session - "in the
[*Since
Satan gives him his throne (Rev. 13:
4), which is super-angelic, the Beast must control the evil
Principalities and Powers: "I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God" (Isa. 14: 13).
Stars, figuratively, are angels (Rev. 12: 4).]
VENGEANCE
Antichrist
in the
[*
The arson of St. Peter's (Rev. 17: 16) and
the pollution of the
** The news of the restoration of the Temple worship
after his desecrations so enraged Antiochus Epiphanes that, bidding his
charioteer drive at double speed, he vowed to make Jerusalem a giant grave in
which to bury all Israel; but the words were scarcely out of his mouth when he
was stricken (like Herod) with internal torments; spectres scared his dying
bed, as they did Lenin’s, who died crying, "Kill
the Jews! kill the Jews!" and he died
cursing
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NOTE
The
royal diadem of the Pharaoh of the Oppression was a golden figure of the Asp,
in the act of striking, encircling the King’s head; and the god of Rameses was
the Dragon. He says:- "The
diadem of the royal snake adorned my head.
It spat fire and glowing flame in the face of my enemies. I brand with a hot iron the foreign peoples
of the whole earth with thy name [the name of his god]. They belong to thy
person for evermore." With the
newly-established divinities the King united himself, both in effigy and in
name. He put up his own image among the
gods, which was worshipped.
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PART 5
THE MILLENNIAL
By G.H. LANG.
1. The Divine Predictions.
The
All-seeing and Fore-seeing has no afterthoughts, but works all things according
to the purpose and after the counsel of His will (Eph. 1: 11). Therefore He can announce in advance what He
intends to do.
1. 2 Chron. 7: 15, 16. As soon as the first house to His name at
This
affirmed an everlasting and perpetual regard, yea, a heart interest, of
God in that house. Yet it is
followed in verse 20 by the seeming
contradiction that, upon
The
manner in which God purposed to fulfil both statements, and to have perpetual
regard to that house while on occasion destroying it, can be learned from
statements He made during the period that house stood before its first
destruction.
2. Psa. 66. The psalm preceding this
is millennial, for "all flesh shall come",
to God in
The
intervening psalm (66) is likewise
millennial. All the earth is joyful and
is singing God’s praise (1, 2, 8). He has completed His terrible but purifying
works upon mankind at large (5-7); He has
brought Israel through tribulation into a wealthy place, into "overlooking refreshing" as Darby’s German gives it (Zu uberstromender Erquickung) (8-12): whereupon the psalmist says: "I will come into thy house with burnt-offerings; I will pay
thee my vows, which my lips uttered, and my mouth spake, when I was in
distress. I will offer unto thee burnt-offerings of fatlings, with the incense
of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats" (13-15).
This
contemplates that at the period of Israel’s restoration there will be a house,
with burnt offerings, free-will offerings in payment of vows, incense, and with
sin offerings, for the goat was used chiefly as the sin offering (see Lev. 4: 24 ; c. 16: etc, etc).
3. Isa. 19. Isaiah prophesied in full
view of his people’s apostasy and their consequent rejection by God, but also
of their full and permanent restoration.
This chapter predicts a period when, first,
4. Isa. cs. 24 to 27. This whole section of
Isaiah is millennial. From the uttermost parts of the earth songs are heard,
"Glory to the righteous" (24: 16): Jehovah is reigning in Zion (24: 23): death is swallowed up for ever (25: 8: comp. 1 Cor.
15: 54): God is a strong city for the righteous (26: 1): the godly of Israel have been raised from the dead (26: 19): and the glorious prophecy concludes on
the high note that Israel’s outcasts have been gathered and shall "worship Jehovah in the holy mountain at Jerusalem" (27: 13). Thus is
5. Isa. 66: 20-23. It is upon this same high
note that
6. Jer. 33: 14-22. This passage also is
millennial, for the Branch of righteousness has grown up in the house of David
and is executing justice and righteousness in the land; Judah has been
saved and Jerusalem dwells safely; her name is "Jehovah
our righteousness"; David’s throne is established (though at the
time of this prophecy it was tottering to its fall): and, concludes the
prediction, as certainly as that "David shall
never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel"
(the fulfilment of the everlasting covenant with David: (2 Sam. 7: 16; Psa. 89: 19-37); neither shall the
priests the Levites want a man before Me to offer burnt-offerings, and to burn
meal offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.
Priests,
Levites, sacrifices are all contemplated, implying a house and an altar. If these things are not to be, as some
affirm, then as certainly must the covenant with David fail and his son,
Messiah, not rule. They who get rid
of the altar must get rid of the throne, as indeed they do, denying a national
future to Israel.
7. Ezek. Capters. 40 to 48. This portion of Holy Writ is fully to the same
effect. The prophecy follows that of the
destruction upon the mountains of
The
plain sense of the whole vision shows the people of Israel in their own land,
with a new temple, with priests of the family of Zadok (48: 11), and Levites (c. 44),
offering on the altar sin, trespass, meal, peace, and burnt-offerings with
oblations of firstfruits, and with sprinkling of the blood. (cs. 43 to 45).
8. Hag. 2.
At the time the second temple was being
built God said to the people : "Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?"
(verse 3). To
encourage them to press forward the erecting of what seemed so insignificant in
comparison with Solomon’s temple the promise was added :
"Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Yet once, it is a
little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the
dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the desirable (or precious) things of all nations shall come; and I will fill this
house with glory, saint Jehovah of hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith
Jehovah of hosts. The
latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith Jehovah
of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith Jehovah of hosts" (6-9).
It
is plain that these promises and those in 20-23,
are millennial. The throne that has
exercised lordship over kingdoms, namely, that of Antichrist, is to be overthrown, and his armies destroyed (22). The
riches of the kingdoms are to go to
9. Zech. 6: 12, 13 reads: "Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts,
saying, Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: and he shall grow up out
of his place; and he shall build the temple of Jehovah; even he shall build the
temple of Jehovah; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his
throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne".
This
gives the specific particulars that Messiah shall be the Builder of that
final temple, that His throne shall be there, and that He shall be Priest-King.
It is this last feature that is
elaborated in Heb. 7, treating of Christ
Jesus as the priest-king after the order of Melchidezek.
10. Zech. 14. Verse 9
extends this kingship of Messiah to the whole earth, thus showing
incontrovertibly that the period is the millennium. This is emphasized by ver. 11 stating that "there
shall be no more curse, but
Verses 16-21 repeat Isaiah’s prophecy (see no. 5 above) that
11. Mal. 3.
This chapter is millennial, for the Lord
did not at His former coming to
All
this asserts a temple, priests, and offerings at that period.
12. Mal. 4: 4
suggests that this re-instituting of Mosaic ceremonies will be but part of a
general divine intention to restore the Mosaic legislation. "Remember ye the
law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all
It
would seem impossible that "the law of Moses"
- a single all-inclusive term - could be re-imposed and not include that
large and dominant part thereof which intermingled
religious exercises with every phase and detail of life in
Surely
there can be no reasonable meaning to all this testimony of the Old Testament
save the plain and first sense of the statements, that Messiah is to build at
Jerusalem a final temple, to be the world-centre of worship and rule, that
priests and Levites will officiate, that feasts will be observed and sacrifices
will be offered, all according to the law given at Sinai.
It
is definitely made impossible to treat this body of prophecy as only an earthly
parable of things heavenly by this fact if by no other, that in Rev. 21: 22 it is stated explicitly that in the
heavenly Jerusalem there will be no temple, whereas in the
scriptures cited as to the earth the temple is mentioned equally explicitly and
is wholly essential to the situation described.
13. For the completeness of study
and clearness of understanding it is necessary to observe that Messiah’s temple
will not be the one in view in Rev. 11, for
the latter is already there in the time of the Beast, before the coming of
Messiah. That a prior temple will be built is plain from Dan. 8: 9-14; 9: 27; 12: 11; Joel 2: 15-27; Matt 24: 15;
and Rev. 11. This last place intimates that there will be
an altar, implying that sacrifices will be resumed, and that there will be
worshippers.
John
was directed to "measure" the temple (Rev. 11: 1). When a surveyor receives
instructions to measure-up a long-neglected property it may be presumed that the owner is about to renew active interest
in it. Thus when Zechariah saw the vision of
It
should be further noticed from Rev. 11: 1
that God will own this pre-Messianic temple as His, for it is styled "the temple of God", and it has an altar,
worshippers, and sacrifices (Dan. 8: 11-13):
How should God not own it seeing that among the worshippers of that era will be
Two Witnesses specially sent by Him to maintain His rights there at that time?
This
divine acknowledgment of that temple is in exact harmony with which Paul’s
teaching in
14. 2 Thess. 2: 3, 4,
which states that immediately before
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ "the man of
sin will be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God or that is an object of worship; so that he
sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God".
Upon the godly resisting this profane
worship the final persecution will set in fiercely, and the altar and sanctuary
will be cast down. This will necessitate that before-noticed building of a
temple by Messiah, when He shall have set up His kingdom shortly thereafter.
2. THE CHIEF DIFFICULTY
The boldest ought to hesitate to deny or to emasculate this weighty
and consentient testimony. It was announced
by the Spirit of truth while the first temple was standing, was renewed while
the second temple was being built and after, was confirmed through Paul while
the third temple (that of Herod) still stood, and was finally repeated in the
Revelation after this last temple had been destroyed. It involves utterances by God Himself to
Solomon and by the Son of God when here, and further statements by the Spirit
of truth through twelve of His inspired messengers.
Nor
do we know but one serious difficulty urged against the taking of this
testimony in its plain sense. This is what the re-instituting of the
sin-offering appears to conflict with the teaching of Hebrews
9 that the offering of Christ on the cross annulled that sin-offering.
Allowing
the surface reality of the difficulty, and even assuming that it were beyond
solution, there will nevertheless apply here the sound cannon that if a
belief be once established by adequate evidence no objection can overthrow it, because
in such case the belief is founded on our knowledge but the objection on our
ignorance.
The
belief in question is founded upon the plain sense of the many scriptures
cited; the objection is founded upon the ignorance as to how to reconcile these
scriptures with another scripture. Were Hebrews not
before us probably no one would question the evident meaning of the former
passages, or at least it would be irrational to do so. Moreover, where is the
believer so conceited as to affirm that because he cannot resolve
a problem therefore it is beyond solution? The modest schoolboy does not question the
well-attested fact that one and one make two, even though he cannot solve a
problem to which that fact leads the way. The devout might leave the matter here,
assured that no divine statements can be really in conflict and that there must
be a solution of the supposed disharmony.
Let
us look at the question. It may be well approached through the statement in Rom. 10: 4 that "Christ
is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth".
This does not say that "Christ the end of the law", that is, absolutely,
completely, so as to bar the continuance of or the re-imposing of the law. This limitation is clear from the fact that
the whole and fundamental part of the law of Moses
which we term the moral law is of perpetual validity. The atonement of
There
are three passages in Ezekiel which may be
thought to contradict this. In these,
sacrifices, including "sin-offerings",
are said to be for "acceptance" (43: 27), for "cleansing"
(45: 18), and for "atonement" (45: 17, 20). But there is no real divergence.
The
first of these passages has to do with the cleansing of the altar,
not of the worshippers (43: 18-27).
The altar being on a yet defiled earth,
made of earthly materials, and being built by still imperfect men, (for the
millennial era and persons will not be perfect), partakes of that defilement
and imperfection, and must be ceremonially cleansed, as a humble acknowledgment
by men of this situation as felt by God. This having been effected, then it is said
that "the priests shall make your burnt-offerings
upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord
Jehovah". Here again it must
be noted that burnt and peace offerings are accepted only from the already
justified.
The
third passage (45: 18-20) is of similar but
wider scope; it has to do with the cleansing of the sanctuary entire: "thou shalt cleanse the sanctuary ... so shall ye make atonement for the
house". The same
considerations apply here; and not only once, as at the initial dedication of
the altar, but perpetually, for this atonement must be made annually. But this is because of the defiling of the
house by two specified classes, the "erring"
and the "simple". The exact parallel is Heb.
5: 2: the high priest "can bear gently with
the ignorant and erring". It
is to be the revival in the future of the great day of atonement (Lev. 16), only in the first month instead of the
seventh. But that day of old had
no connection with the justifying of an ungodly transgressor. It was for the benefit of the ignorant and
erring, that is, for the covering of the unrecognized failures of the people of
God, who sought indeed to walk with Him according to His law, but, like
ourselves, did not do so perfectly, according to God’s character and estimates.
The present parallel to this is 1 John 1: 6, 7.
He who knowingly walks in darkness
derives no benefit from the work of Christ (ver. 6),
but "if we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin".
The emphasis is upon the word "all," including sins through error, simplicity,
ignorance. But this implies prior
justification, prior attainment of a standing before God through grace and
atoning blood. The unjustified is
not "in the light" and cannot "walk in the light". It is "if we [John and fellow-saints] walk in the light" that this
cleansing avails.
This
shows the force of the immediately preceding passage (Ezek.
45: 13-17). It is similar and entirely corporate aspect of atonement
that is contemplated, not that of an individual transgressor seeking
justification. "All the people of the land" are to present a
united and stated "oblation" unto the
prince, out of which he is to provide the necessary sacrifices "in all the appointed
feasts of the house of
Concerning
all earthly persons and their worship, both of old and now and in the
millennial era, it is to be remembered that there is iniquity in "holy gifts" (Ex. 28:
38), in the sanctuary, and in the priesthood (Num.
18: 1). This iniquity must be purged, not only that
of the unjustified when first approaching God, and
this it is that the presented by the Word of God in connection with that coming
temple and its sacrifices for sin. This
may be gathered from Isa 60: 21. Speaking of
Hebrews. As far as the teaching of
this Epistle is an expansion of the teaching stated in Rom.
10: 4, what has been said above will apply thereto; but some particular
observations may be helpful and confirmatory.
1. The whole epistle proceeds
upon the opening acknowledgment of a certain status in those addressed. All its reasonings and exhortations are based
on the fact of this status. It is set
forth (1) that a man, Jesus the Son of God, is crowned with glory and honour in
the heavens to be the Ruler of the universe; and (2) that God has in view to
bring many others, also of the status of sons to Himself, that
they may share that glory and rule of the Son, He and they being alike from one
Source, the Father, as the Son acknowledges by calling them His "brethren" (2: 5-13).
In
consequence of this association and this status, those addressed are "partakers of a heavenly
calling" (3: 1), that is, a
calling to live and reign in that upper world, not simply on the earth as if
still men of the earth. Therefore the
writer deals with them, instructs them, pleads, exhorts, warns them as men
already justified, as dissociated in the purpose of God from the earth as their
sphere of hope, and belonging to the heavens above, whither they are hereafter
to be taken and where already their hearts should ascend to reside.
For
such persons a sanctuary of this world, with earthly priesthood and
ceremonies, is obviously unnecessary and a hindrance, for it would still attach
them to the earth. Therefore they who
would cling to such an earthly institution cannot share in the corresponding
and superior heavenly sanctuary with its superior advantages, for the simple
reason that a man cannot be at once of heaven and of earth, in heaven and on
earth. Each must take
his choice. The heavenly region is available, as Canaan was for God’s earthly
people of old (cs. 3 and 4); but as these had to accept redemption by
blood, to forsake Egypt as their home, to traverse the wilderness as pilgrims,
and to take possession by conflict of their inheritance, so must the heavenly
people follow the same course; and if any turn back he will not reach the
land.
Thus
these in view were addressed as already redeemed, already related to God,
already dissociated from this earth and partakers of the heavenly portion. Clearly for such no
earthly sanctuary can be in question. But
this reasoning seems to fail when it is sought to apply it to an earthly people
of God, and in consequence those who deny that there is to be an earthly
temple are soon driven on to deny that there is to be an earthly people of
God and to say that Israel has no national future. This sets aside the plain sense and force of
all Scripture and throws the divine program into utter confusion. Upon this topic the reader should by all means
read S. H. Wilkinson’s admirable
discussion "The Israel Promises".
But
grant that there is to be an earthly people of God, Israel, and other saved
nations on earth, it does not follow that for such persons
an earthly sanctuary, priesthood, and sacrifices will be out of order and
hurtful. As well might it be argued that
the earthly territory, political economy, and dignities were out of order. Where the
whole order is earthly, visible, material it will be part of that order that
religion shall bear the corresponding aspect. The public organization would seem
structurally incomplete without public and organized religion. A world association of saved nations will
as much require a centre of worship as of government, and the wisdom of God has
designed both for the coming era, as the scriptures here considered show. This is the basic principle of a state church;
but, it is true that the former religious economy, associated with the law and
centred in the tabernacle, made no worship perfect, as to the conscience or
relationship with God: it is equally certain that no future visible
arrangements will do so of themselves. The
former covenant, made at Sinai, displayed this ineffectiveness; the law could
not in practice be anything but weak and unprofitable, for the
reason given in Rom. 8: 3, that it was weak through the
bad material, the flesh, on which it had to work. But the future relations of
man to God will be on the basis of a new covenant and will include regeneration,
which feature is stressed in Heb. 8, quoting
from God’s advance promise this in Jer. 31. Under the new conditions of renewed human
nature, cannot the law be as helpful as before it was helpless? This goes far to account for it being
re-imposed.
Moreover,
even under the former imperfect conditions the law could and did help faith by
pointing it forward to Christ, and to His sacrifice, and to the good things to
come. It was a tutor to direct to Christ
(Gal. 3: 23-29). In the same way the temple and ceremonies of
the future will direct hearts to Christ, and the more fully that it will be
known that they are pictures, no longer of events yet to be but of facts of
history. And this knowledge of Christ
and His perfect sacrifice cannot but operate to prevent any view of the
sacrifices on the altar other than that they are memorials; even as the same
knowledge by Christians of this age forbids that the bread and wine on the
table of the Lord be thought of as more than memorials. The
arguments used against a future altar of God can as well be used against the
present table of the Lord.
And
it would seem that there will be real need at that time of such a picture-book
instruction, especially for the Gentile peoples. For the light of both Christian and Jewish
witness will have been all but extinguished by the Beast and his Prophet;
paganism will be dominant, and "darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples" (Isa. 60: 2) which ... agrees with Christ’s
significant question, "When the Son of man cometh
shall He find the faith on the earth?"
(Lk. 18.)
This
was the state of Israel Godward when He come down to
redeem them from
Thus
with an earthly economy, marked by visible glory, a visible and noble sanctuary
will be harmonious and helpful. There will be nothing to challenge the solitary
efficacy of the cross of Christ’s acceptance with God, but, on the contrary,
all will illustrate its usefulness and power. Especially will the ceremonies teach the means
of maintaining that fellowship with God into which justification introduces the
believer. They will say in symbol what we now sing in
verse,
"I
stand upon His merit;
I know no other
stand,
Not e’en where glory
dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land."
The
calling to the heavenly portion, glory, and service will, as far as we see,
have been closed by the resurrection and rapture of the church of God at the
descent of Christ (1 Thess. 4), but then God
will resume His dealings with the world at large, with Israel as the central
nation; and with the establishing of the temple of Messiah, there shall be
fulfilled at last the word which must find fulfilment, but never had done so, ("My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples"
Isa. 56: 7). This scripture Christ applied, as Isaiah
had done, to the visible house of God at
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PART 6
BENEATH THE
About
the middle of the nineteenth century, Dr.
R. G. Barclay, a missionary, was walking outside the walls of
* * * * * * *
As
one walks through these old quarries, he wonders how the stone could have been dislodged,
since the quarrying of Solomon’s day was carried on hundreds of years before
the use of blasting powder. An
examination of the quarries reveals the ancient method. The workmen would cut into the rock so as to
make slots on about four sides of a piece of stone. Then wooden wedges would be driven in on one
side, and water poured on the wedges. As
the wood swelled, it would break the stone free from the native rock. We could see the holes into which the wooden
wedges had been driven. Dr. Barclay says:-
"For some time we were almost overcome with
feelings of awe and admiration (and I must say apprehension, too, from the
immense and impending vaulted roof), and felt quite at a loss to decide in
which direction to wend our way. There
is a constant and in many places very rapid descent from the entrance to the
termination, the distance between which two points, in a nearly direct line, is
seven hundred and fifty feet; and the cave is upwards of three thousand feet in
circumference, supported by great numbers of rude natural pillars".
* * * * * * *
When
referring to Himself, our Lord said: "The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner" (Matt. 21: 42). Apparently this is a reference to an incident which is believed to have occurred
in connection with Solomon’s quarry and the building of Solomon’s
The
workmen below the ground in the quarries finally set themselves to the task of
fashioning the cornerstone for Solomon’s great structure. For a long time they laboured, and at last it
was finished and sent up to the surface.
The labourers who were working on the
Years later the
With great joy it was brought back to the
-
PROFESSOR J. P. FRET.